Vanderbilt University has a history of strong, innovative research in the areas of Developmental Science that continues to thrive in the graduate program in Psychological Sciences. The Developmental Science program concentrates on processes of development in infants, children, and adolescents. Faculty research areas include cognition, social processes, emotion, and language, in addition to family and school contexts of development. A focus on basic processes as they apply to both typical and atypical development (e.g., mental retardation, psychopathology) is given attention throughout graduate education. The program provides training in the design and analysis of research focusing on questions of growth and change at the group and individual levels.

An important feature of the program is the flexibility students have to design an individualized program. With program requirements as their foundation, students work closely with their major professor and other faculty members in advanced courses and in developing their research interests, skills, and academic programs. Students also are encouraged to take advantage of all that the University offers by pursuing course work and research projects not only in Psychological Sciences (both the Department of Psychology and Human Development at Peabody and the Department of Psychology in the College of Arts and Science), but also the Departments of Teaching and Learning and Special Education, and in other schools within the University including the Nursing School, the Medical School, and the School of Engineering.

A distinguishing feature of the Developmental Science program is the sense of community that extends to the Psychological Sciences major and the University as a whole. A faculty member's research interests may be shared by someone in another department who looks at the same issue from a different perspective. Research findings are shared, and collaborative projects involving students frequently develop.

For more information, please contact the program director: Tedra Walden (tedra.walden@vanderbilt.edu).